Afonso de Albuquerque : biography

Albuquerque’s operations sent a voyage pushing further south which made the European discovery of Timor in the far south of Oceania, and the discovery of Papua New Guinea in 1512. This was soon followed up by another Portuguese Jorge de Meneses in 1526, who named Papua New Guinea, the "Island of the Papua".Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands by Max Quanchi, John Robson, Scarecrow Press, 2005. page XLIII

Through the diplomatic activities of Albuquerque, Portugal opened up for the first time in history, the sea between Europe and China. As early as 1513, Jorge de Albuquerque, a Portuguese commanding officer in Malaca, sent his subordinate Jorge Álvares to sail to China on a ship loaded with pepper from Sumatra. After sailing many miles across the sea, Jorge Álvares and his crew dropped anchor in Tamao, an island located at the mouth of the Pearl River. This was to be the first time the Portuguese ever to set foot in the territory known as China, the mythical "Middle Kingdom" where they erected a stone Padrão.NEWSLETTER JULY – DECEMBER 2012. Nº11 MACAU SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL CENTRE P.I. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE THE MING PORCELAIN BOTTLE OF JORGE ÁLVARES INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM – MACAU: PAST AND PRESENT. page 10. (online: http://www.cccm.pt/anexos_publicacoes/d20121024230228.pdf) Jorge is the first European to reach Chinese land by sea, circumventing the Romans (Rome took the overland route via Asia-Minor).China and Europe Since 1978: A European Perspective Cambridge University Press, 2002. page 1The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art edited by Gerald W. R. Ward. Oxford University Press, 2008. p. 37The Biography of Tea By Carrie Gleason Crabtree Publishing Company, 2007. p. 12 and, the first European to discover Hong Kong.Hong Kong & Macau 14 By Andrew Stone, Piera Chen, Chung Wah Chow Lonely Planet, 2010. pp. 20.21Hong Kong & Macau By Jules Brown Rough Guides, 2002. p. 195 One year later, in 1514, Afonso de Albuquerque, the Viceroy of the Estado da India dispatched Italian, Rafael Perestrello to sail to China in order to pioneer European trade relations with the Chinese nation. Rafael Perestrelo was quoted as saying, "being a very good and honest people, the Chinese hope to make friends with the Portuguese.". In spite of initial harmony and excitement between the two empires, difficulties began to arise shortly afterwards. When different cultures have encountered each other for the first time, there has often been misunderstanding, bigotry, even hostility, and the Portuguese were not alone in this regard. Portugal’s efforts in establishing long lasting ties with China however paid off, in the long run. Eventually, the Portuguese colonized Macau, and established the first European permanent settlement on Chinese soil in history, which served as a permanent colonial base in southern China, and the two empires maintained an exchange in culture and trade that would span for nearly 500 years.Watercraft on World Coins: America and Asia, 1800-2008 By Yossi Dotan Sussex Academic Press, 2010. page 303 Portugal still had a foothold in India until the 1960s and in Africa until the 1970s, but it was the enduring trade ties between China and Portugal, initiated by Albuquerque many centuries earlier, that would ensure that the first global empire in history would live long enough to be the last remaining empire, ending only when Portugal handed over the government of Macau to China (1415-1999).The Bricks of an Empire IMS-1999 585 Years of Portuguese Emigration Stanley L. .Engennan Joâo César das Neves December 1996. page 2.

Albuquerque pioneered trade relations with Thailand, being the first European to discover Thailand.Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania By Barbara A. West. Infobase Publishing, 2009. p. 800

Governor of Portuguese India, 1509-1515

Albuquerque was released after three months’ confinement, on the arrival at Cannanore of the Marshal of Portugal with a large fleet. He was the most important Portuguese noble ever to visit India and he brought an armada of fifteen ships and 3,000 men sent by the King to defend the rights of Albuquerque and take Calicut.Neto, Ricardo Bonalume. MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History pp. 68. Cowles Enthusiast Media Spring. 2002-04-01. (Page news on 2006-10-20)